Video Card Upgrade

[archy555]

I have Dell 8200 P4 2.26Ghz with ti4200 video card on it. The system is 3years old but suits my needs well since I upgraded it heavily (DVD burner, second hard drive, more memory). I'm looking to upgrade video card now to something that can run with my 250W power supply. What's the best AGP video card that fits in here? Keep in mind that I can't use harddrive/cdrom power supply since I have 2 cdroms and 2 harddrives on the system already. All I'm looking for is a moderate performance boost, I play UT99 exclusively (CF LowG InstaGib 155 speed) and Ti4200 runs it just fine at 1400x1050 but it can get a bit sluggish when it's 10-12 players on certain maps.Thanks in advance!

 

[SynthDude2001]

Any current video card would probably be severely CPU-limited on your system. In fact, if you only play UT99 exclusively (I play that much of the time too), that game is itself very CPU limited, and would likely not benefit from a faster video card anyway.

You could drop in a 9700 Pro or something like that, but as I said....I honestly don't think that would really help you. You might see if you could find an inexpensive used P4 3GHz or something...

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

 

[archy555]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Any current video card would probably be severely CPU-limited on your system. In fact, if you only play UT99 exclusively (I play that much of the time too), that game is itself very CPU limited, and would likely not benefit from a faster video card anyway.

You could drop in a 9700 Pro or something like that, but as I said....I honestly don't think that would really help you. You might see if you could find an inexpensive used P4 3GHz or something...

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

This game gets CPU limited only at low resolution, I play at 1400x1050 or 1600x1200 resolution so CPU speed is not an issue here, I need faster card. My major concern is power supply though, I'm not looking for besr card out there - I'm looking for the best card that fits in my system. Thanks for welcoming!

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: archy555

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Any current video card would probably be severely CPU-limited on your system. In fact, if you only play UT99 exclusively (I play that much of the time too), that game is itself very CPU limited, and would likely not benefit from a faster video card anyway.

You could drop in a 9700 Pro or something like that, but as I said....I honestly don't think that would really help you. You might see if you could find an inexpensive used P4 3GHz or something...

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

This game gets CPU limited only at low resolution, I play at 1400x1050 or 1600x1200 resolution so CPU speed is not an issue here, I need faster card. My major concern is power supply though, I'm not looking for besr card out there - I'm looking for the best card that fits in my system. Thanks for welcoming!

Perhaps so...one thing to test is whether or not you get those same slowdowns at lower resolutions too. If you don't, then it is indeed a video card limitation.

I'm not sure how much of an upgrade you can get though and stay within the limits of your 250W power supply...a 9700 Pro might even be pushing it.

 

[archy555]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: archy555

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Any current video card would probably be severely CPU-limited on your system. In fact, if you only play UT99 exclusively (I play that much of the time too), that game is itself very CPU limited, and would likely not benefit from a faster video card anyway.

You could drop in a 9700 Pro or something like that, but as I said....I honestly don't think that would really help you. You might see if you could find an inexpensive used P4 3GHz or something...

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

This game gets CPU limited only at low resolution, I play at 1400x1050 or 1600x1200 resolution so CPU speed is not an issue here, I need faster card. My major concern is power supply though, I'm not looking for besr card out there - I'm looking for the best card that fits in my system. Thanks for welcoming!

Perhaps so...one thing to test is whether or not you get those same slowdowns at lower resolutions too. If you don't, then it is indeed a video card limitation.

I'm not sure how much of an upgrade you can get though and stay within the limits of your 250W power supply...a 9700 Pro might even be pushing it.

I don't think 9700Pro would be an upgrade to Ti4200. What about power supply - I just need a video card that doesn't require those additional power connectors to it and can run just on AGP power. So far the best fit I can find is Ti4600 (it's basically the same card as ti4200 but with more memory and higher core/memory speed settings).

 

[kurt454]

9700 Pro is an upgrade to a ti4600, but my old Dell's psu was too weak to feed mine. I would look into a 9600xt.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: archy555

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: archy555

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Any current video card would probably be severely CPU-limited on your system. In fact, if you only play UT99 exclusively (I play that much of the time too), that game is itself very CPU limited, and would likely not benefit from a faster video card anyway.

You could drop in a 9700 Pro or something like that, but as I said....I honestly don't think that would really help you. You might see if you could find an inexpensive used P4 3GHz or something...

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

This game gets CPU limited only at low resolution, I play at 1400x1050 or 1600x1200 resolution so CPU speed is not an issue here, I need faster card. My major concern is power supply though, I'm not looking for besr card out there - I'm looking for the best card that fits in my system. Thanks for welcoming!

Perhaps so...one thing to test is whether or not you get those same slowdowns at lower resolutions too. If you don't, then it is indeed a video card limitation.

I'm not sure how much of an upgrade you can get though and stay within the limits of your 250W power supply...a 9700 Pro might even be pushing it.

I don't think 9700Pro would be an upgrade to Ti4200. What about power supply - I just need a video card that doesn't require those additional power connectors to it and can run just on AGP power. So far the best fit I can find is Ti4600 (it's basically the same card as ti4200 but with more memory and higher core/memory speed settings).

A 9700 Pro is quite a bit faster than even a GF4 Ti4600 in most cases, so it would be an upgrade. It does have a little 4-pin "floppy drive" power connector, but it should come with an adapter allowing you to split one of your current molex connectors. Although like I said, I'm not sure what the power draw is and if your power supply would be sufficient for it.

You could get the Ti4600 as you said, but I tend to think it wouldn't really be worth it at all (unless you found one really cheap).

Edit: Like the guy above me said, look into perhaps a 9600XT or a 9500 Pro if you can find one. Those don't have external power connectors..

 

[archy555]

Ok, thank you guys